


Balancing the books

by Yuliares



Category: Animal Crossing New Leaf, どうぶつの森 | Animal Crossing Series
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Married Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 03:10:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11682801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuliares/pseuds/Yuliares
Summary: As Reese closes up Re-Tail at the end of a busy day, she reflects on the business she and her husband have started, how their relationship changed her life, and their future together.





	Balancing the books

Cyrus was snoring lightly by the time Reese closed and locked the door of Re-Tail, their little second-hand goods and refurbishing shop. The broom was behind the door, and she took it out to give the floors a quick sweep, collecting the dirt and dust from busy feet and hooves. Business had been good today - and as usual, the new mayor had been in several times.

Reese shook her head ruefully. She had been beset with worry when Tortimer first announced his retirement, unsure who would fill his vacancy. Specifically, if they would maintain his easy-going attitude towards small businesses. She’d nearly had a heart attack when the new mayor arrived and immediately started visiting their shop at all hours, convinced that at any moment her little business would be audited. Technically, they were in a residentially-zoned area, but Tortimer had never cared...

_All that worry for nothing._ Three months later, this new mayor was their best customer, fueled by an unhealthy obsession with retail activity that in a larger city would surely have led to their financial ruin. The Nookling boys were already taking advantage of what was clearly a mental illness, renovating their little store and doubling their inventory.

Reese sniffed disapprovingly. _No matter._ She wasn’t worried about losing business to them - after all, villagers came to her shop for more than just furniture - the items they sold were special, loved, customized.The kinds of items she herself hoped she and her darling could someday fill their dream home with.

She glanced over again to the work bench where her husband was still zonked out, a daub of paint on his blue nose, and couldn’t help but smile. Her Cy-guy was such a hard worker. How she managed to land such a fine alpaca was beyond her. All this - a good man, owning a business, a small idyllic town… it was all so much more than she’d ever dreamt she could have as a young cria in the city slums.

She had a neat little pile of dirt, which she collected by the door. She would sweep it out in the morning when they opened. She put the broom back in its place and left her husband sleeping, trotting downstairs to collect some dinner. There was leftover turnip soup in their battered stock pot, and she began heating it up on the stove before digging out two mugs, which she filled with milk. The mugs were a little lumpy, but one of her most treasured possessions. They were from one of their first dates, the very first thing they had built together.

Cyrus loved making things. Reese… well, she was used to making do. Visiting his community college and using the art department’s pottery wheel had felt like visiting another planet. The whole time she was sure someone was going to bust in the doors and kick her out for being in imposter. And art - who had time for that? Certainly not the underfunded public school she had attended. The only reason she stuck around long enough to graduate was that a perfect attendance record guaranteed you a free lunch on the assistance program.  
Cyrus was the one who had convinced her that she could be more than a waitress, could dream bigger than a communal apartment full of cigarette smoke. That her chance at making it in the world wasn’t smuggling drugs for her uncle, but a two-year business degree on a needs-based scholarship. She had the diploma framed in their bedroom.

Oh, Mr. Nook thought he was the businessman of the town, with his nephews running the only supermarket and his monopoly on village construction. In fact, the only structure he hadn’t built was the Re-Tail building. She had, of course, insisted Cyrus build it. She could tell it irked Mr. Nook, but he didn’t think she was anything more than a head of fluff, somehow making ends meet by buying bugs and selling the discarded trash of other residents. But she knew where the real money was, and it wasn’t in inventory and stocking and bulk pricing. She wasn’t dumb, and as it turned out, she was good with numbers.

She was in on the stock market… and the house always won. And what better way to hide some shady numbers than a multitude of small transactions in cash, where no one kept receipts?

The soup was beginning to bubble, so she turned off the heat and ladled out two servings into bowls. There was a tin on the shelf, almost empty, but she put the last of the crackers on the tray to go with the soup. Out of habit, she shook the crumbs out and licked them up, savoring the salt. She would buy more crackers tomorrow.

She set aside her apron, and picked up the tray. 

Cyrus would never know what it was like to be hungry enough to lick crumbs from crackers tins. 

She gave her sleeping husband a gentle nudge as she set the tray down on his worktable.  
“Hey there, darling,” she said softly. “Dinner time!”  
“Mrrggg,” he replied groggily, and lifted his head off the table. “Sorry, dear. I fell asleep -”  
“You had a busy day,” she said, pushing a lumpy mug into his hooves. “Have some dinner, and then we can go to bed.”

Cyrus was _good._ Honest, hard-working. He was happy to live a modest life eating turnip soup and working seven days a week. He had no desire to look at numbers and spreadsheets, and besides, “ _That’s what you went to school for, dear, I’m sure you’re doing just great._ ” She had tried to share them, at first to prove she wasn’t making mistakes, but he didn’t need her to prove anything to him. He trusted her.

She loved him so much. Meeting him had changed her life, and there was nothing she wouldn’t do to keep this fairy tale going. She would ensure they had a financial future, that they would have crackers with their soup, and a retirement, and the books that Cyrus never looked at _would_ balance.

She would see to that.


End file.
